


A Valentine Tree

by AnneAce



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Deaf Clint Barton, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mischief, Multilingual Characters, POV Steve Rogers, Sick Steve Rogers, Skinny Steve, Traditions, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 09:30:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17805473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnneAce/pseuds/AnneAce
Summary: Under the frosted tips of growing tree branches, two lovers met for the first time. Then for the second, third, and every time. They swear to each other that they'll be Valentines forever. Some childish promises growing into reality, and as their tree grows so does their love for each other and the family that they built.





	A Valentine Tree

It started when Steve was in kindergarten. He had missed preschool because he had been too sick and small to be around the other children. Now he was bigger, still sickly and pale but as long as he was careful it wasn’t dangerous. Steve wasn’t very careful though. He did everything everyone else did even when he shouldn’t, and he was stubborn. More stubborn than any other kindergartener. It was perhaps all these things that made Steve the least liked kid in his class.

Valentine’s day was supposed to be exciting. The classroom had a big party, they were exchanging valentines, and everyone’s parents were coming. Well, not Steve’s mom. She was working at the hospital and as far as Steve was concerned he didn’t have a dad. Steve didn’t receive a valentine from anyone, but that didn’t upset him. That didn’t stop the boys in his class from thinking it should upset him.

Steve was surrounded by a group of other boys in his class by the new sapling that the class had planted together in the fall. It was recess and then time for the party.

“No one is ever going to want you as a valentine Steve!”

“Yeah! You’re gross.”

“And you’re mean,” Steve answered growing more agitated as they taunted him.

He wasn’t upset by the fact that he didn’t get any valentines, but it was upsetting that they were being so mean to him. Steve knew that they were trying to pick a fight and he couldn’t back down from one. When his teacher had called his mother to complain that Steve was a "tad" confrontational she had laughed and just told the teacher to blame the Irish in him. Steve wasn’t really sure what that meant, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t back down from a challenge.

Just then one of the first graders appeared pushing his way through the crowd of boys. Steve braced his feet and looked up at him. His brown hair was slicked back in the way that mothers did their boy's hair before church and he had the prettiest eyes Steve had ever seen on a boy. In his hand was a giant red heart.

“I think you’re pretty cute Stevie. Why don’t you be my Valentine?"

There was a lopsided grin on his face as he held out the red heart. Steve took it returning the smile. “But he’s a boy,” one of the surrounding boys complained.

The older boy shrugged. “So?”

Steve kissed his cheek in thanks. After all that what you did to your valentine’s right?

“James!”

The older boy looked back behind him pushing his hands into his back pockets. “Ah geez,” he complained, “he’s caught me. Bye Valentine!”

He ruffled Steve’s hair and ran off to join the gym teacher and his class. The attention turned back to Steve and his large Valentine heart. The recess whistle blew, and they all headed inside.

Steve didn’t get a Valentine from any of his classmates and his mom wasn’t there for the party, but he had a big paper heart and a smile on his face anyways.

\----------------------------

Steve didn’t see James for another year. They’re in different grades and they didn’t have time the time to be thinking about each other. Five and six are very important ages after all. They were busy.

Still, the next year in February Steve watched to see the 2nd graders recess schedule. By Valentine’s Day, he knew when they would be out for recess and made his plans.

Steve slipped out of music class asking to use the bathroom and made his way outside. How he got past all the teachers in the halls and the recess crew no one as quite sure, but he did, with a big red heart clenched in his hands.

Snow crunched under Steve’s shoes as he made his way to where he had met James last year. He found him there a book in his gloved hand flipping through the pages.

“Be my Valentine?” Steve asked him coming to a holt and holding out the paper heart.

James looked up from his book and his face broke out into a huge smile that nearly took up bid entire face. “Always,” he promised and kissed Steve’s cheek taking the giant heart.

Steve rubbed his shoulders with his now free hands. February was cold and he really should be wearing his coat. James noticed with a frown peeling off his gloves and putting them on Steve’s hands.

“What are you thinking coming out without a coat on,” James demanded, “my mom says you can catch your death out here.”

That might have been a little too literal for Steve. His teacher seemed to agree when he ran over to them and dragged Steve back to music class.

Steve did catch a cold after that, but it had been worth it.

\----------------------------

The next year passed quickly. A red-headed girl came into Steve’s class that Spring. Her family had moved over from Great Britain to be with her American cousin. Peggy Carter was the first friend that Steve ever had. She had marched up to him demanded that they play spy’s and they had been inseparable ever since. Which meant Steve could get in much more trouble than he had previously. It was great.

Peggy wasn’t upset when Steve told her she couldn’t be his Valentine because he already had one. She was cool like that. The tree was now getting thicker and had a plethora of leaves in spring and in summer. But it was winter and bare in February, except for hanging ice crystals.

Still, James came the big red paper heart in his hand. He was being chased by two different teachers and he stumbled to a stop next to the tree. “Hey, yah Stevie. Still my Valentine?”

Steve took the heart and kissed James’ cheek. “Better run,” he noted as the teachers got closer.

James took in a deep breath. “Right."

“See you next year,” Steve yelled as James took off.

Peggy came to stand with Steve after that. “That’s Bucky Barnes,” she announced like he should have known that, “he doesn’t go by James Steve.”

Steve didn’t argue with her because Peggy knew everything. Peggy worried her bottom lip. “Does he always do that?”

“Nah,” Steve flashed her his biggest trouble making grin, “we switch.”

\----------------------------

By third grade, Steve had started to get into fights. He lost them and Peggy took to exasperatedly nursing his wounds, just like his mother did. Unlike his mother, Peggy never tried to scold him. More often times then not she would have joined him, but none of the other boys would hit a girl. She thought it was terribly unfair.

The teachers by now had caught onto Steve and Bucky’s antics just like the rest of their grades. Steve had to enlist Peggy’s help to plan to get away. They made it into another spy game. It was great fun.

It ended up with Peggy wailing about tripping, over a toy set that had been left out, so loudly that it took up all the teacher's attention and Steve slipped out, with his coat, without a problem.

On the playground, Bucky was waiting by the tree with a group of fourth graders watching from a distance.

“Happy Valentine’s day Buck,” Steve greeted holding out their paper heart.

“Happy Valentine’s day Stevie,” Bucky laughed.

Steve glance over at the other boy. Bucky had grown and his limbs had gotten longer. His neat hair had finally freed itself from its mother induced perfection. Steve thought it was amazing. Bucky was going to be big and strong, well bigger and stronger than he already was.

Bucky leaned down. “Can’t believe how big you’ve gotten,” he declared ruffling Steve’s hair before planting a sweet kiss on his cheek.

“Me? I haven’t grown at all. You’re the one getting big.”

It was the longest conversation they had ever had and it was interrupted the recess guards who had finally noticed that Steve Rogers was not where he should be...again. Steve went silently with them waving to Bucky. He wanted to talk more to the other boy, but he would see him again, next year.

\----------------------------

Steve got sick that summer. Peggy was both annoyed and understanding. He understood how she felt because he was the same way. She yelled at him when he tried to get up to play spies with her anyways because she didn’t want him to be sick during school more than he needed to. Who else was going to play spies with her? And anyways she could visit him at the hospital or his home depending on where he happened to be.

Still, Steve felt guilty, Peggy despite her composure was very energetic. He knew that she hated to be cooped up inside, so he found them a new friend.

Sam had moved across the hall from Steve’s apartment in July. The young boy had moved in with Grandfather Nick Furry while his parents went through a nasty divorce. Sam was the second person Steve made friends with and he introduced the pair at the first opportunity.

Thankfully Sam was as in awe of Peggy as Steve was so they were fast friends. None of them could wait until they could all play spies together during the school year, as long as Steve got better. They sat on him if he tried to get out of bed.

Blessedly for Steve and Peggy’s mothers and Sam’s Grandfather, Steve was fit again to leave the house as fall came around the corner. That school year was exciting because Peggy, Steve, and Sam had been put in the same class together along with another new kid named Tony. The adults looked at Tony funny and Tony said it was because his dad was famous, but Steve didn’t really care. Tony was as good at playing spies as Sam was so it didn’t really matter.

Tony became fast friends with one of the boys in Steve’s “behavioral management” lessons. Behavioral management meant that Steve wasn’t good at backing down from a fight and the teachers wanted to correct it or something. He had a hard time paying attention and he wouldn’t have cared even if he did understand what they were saying.

Bruce had “anger management” problems which meant sometimes he got really angry and couldn’t control himself. Steve remembered that because it was important to Bruce, and Bruce was a nice guy as long as you didn’t make him angry. He didn’t play spies with them, but Bruce was fun for a lot of other things.

The Five of them were inseparable much to the school’s frustration. It was a great year for Steve. Until he got sick again. He spent January fighting off colds and snivels, and by February he was in the hospital again.

Time blurred for Steve in his fever and daze. He couldn’t tell the passage of time. But in one of his dreams, he saw Bucky walk into his hospital room. Bucky gently kissed the top of his head. “Hey, Stevie. Happy Valentine’s day. Get better soon and I’ll see you next year.”

Steve wasn’t sure if that actually happened or not, but by the time he was well enough again to stand with a clear head on his own two feet in April, he found a red heart sitting on his bedside table. It was painful and sweet and Steve cried not understanding why he was so upset.

When Steve returned to school his friends assaulted him with hugs and loving words. They had visited, but Steve hadn’t been in any shape to remember. Still, Steve thought about Bucky. His valentine and the tradition they had. How some of the teachers balked at it, and how some of the other kids always told him it was wrong that his valentine was another boy. Steve started to do some research.

They had a sleepover once Steve’s Mom gave them the all clear. It was under the safety of a pillow fort that Steve showed them the results of his secret research.

“I think I have a crush on Bucky.”

“Of course you have a crush on Bucky darling,” Peggy scoffed.

Steve blinked. “Really?"

“Wait who's Bucky,” Tony questioned.

“Steve’s fifth-grade boyfriend,” Peggy informed him.

Steve hushed her wanting to sink under the pillows and hide. “He’s not my boyfriend. I haven’t ever really talked to him. We just exchange a valentine every year.”

“But you were in the hospital this year,” Sam pointed out.

Steve felt his cheeks heat up and climbed over his bed to a box and pulled out the giant red heart. “I think he came and saw me at the hospital.”

Tony gagged. “Gross.” he complained and started to tug on Bruce’s sleeve, “tell us again about the dinosaur thing.”

Their attention was captivated by the mention of dinosaurs and none of them thought it again for the rest of the night. The next day though Steve thought about the big heart, and the tree leaf he had found with it.

\----------------------------

It hit Steve on the first day of school rather than in February that Bucky was no longer in the same school as him. Bucky was in 6th grade, middle school, about a mile down the road. Still with Sam’s arm slung across his shoulder Steve pushed those thoughts away. That was a problem for February.

Between after-school activities, sleepovers, birthdays, and of course school February did come. It came quickly and violently. Tony, Sam, and Bruce didn’t understand Peggy and Steve’s sudden urgency, but they jumped on the mission with the passion the five of them did everything with.

It was decided after much discussion that they would all go this year. The other three boys wanted to see Bucky. “How are we going to find where he is in the middle school though,” Sam asked, “and not get caught by the teachers there.”

“Well there is five of us” Peggy noted, “one of us is bound to find him.”

“I’ll know where he is,” Steve declared taking a bite of his sandwich.

“How,” Tony demanded this time.

Steve shrugged. “I dunno. I just will.”

Getting the five of them out of the classroom on Valentine’s day was different than just getting Steve out. Especially since every teacher in school was on the lookout. Which was why Steve slipped inside the bathroom after recess instead of heading back to class. Bruce had pretended to hurt his ankle so Tony took him to the nurses' office. Peggy and Sam got into a fight large enough to get them both sent to the office, which they didn’t go to, but hid outside instead. The five of them met up outside and turned towards the middle school. For the run, they had prepared for and prayed that Steve was strong enough to complete.

Steve didn’t run towards the school though, he was running for their tree. Tony complained loudly when they followed and realized that Bucky was indeed waiting, a group of four middle schoolers standing watch behind him.

“Isn’t that your cousin Sharon?” Sam asked Peggy as they stopped watching Steve rush over to Bucky by himself.

It was indeed Sharon her blond hair billowing across her face and a worried smile in her eyes. Next to her was a second girl tight red hair and black clothes looking far too deadly for a 6th grader. Next to the redhead was a sandy-haired boy holding her hand. Next to him was a dark-skinned girl whose eyes matched Tony’s mischievous intelligence.

None of that mattered though. Neither group could hold each other's attention. Not when Steve plowed into Bucky’s waiting arms. They stood like that for a while tight in an embrace, like the rest of the world and time didn’t exist. “Next year,” Bucky muttered, “I don’t care what day it is. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“You like me that much,” Steve asked.

Bucky was huge, in the way that a middle schooler was huge to anyone in elementary school. In the way that everyone was huge compared to Steve. Bucky took off his gloves pressing his fingertips on Steve’s freezing cheeks before he kissed them. “Course I do,” Bucky swore not removing his fingertips from Steve's skin, “you’re my Valentine.”

They smiled at each other, soft, young, and innocent. From the crowd watching them, it was like watching magnets collide. It was two souls jumping out with joy as they saw each other again. The pair was a set of souls who had known each other for thousands of years their reincarnations meeting and consuming each other each time. Ones that had fought to be with each other forever, and they were finally enjoying the soft comforts of each other.

The pair stood like that, foreheads pressed together until Steve’s teeth started to chatter. “Happy Valentine's day Stevie,” Bucky muttered stepping back the red heart tucked gently to his side.

“Happy Valentines day Buck."

They turned and walked away from each other. One more year Steve promised himself. He knew deep in his bones that Bucky and himself had eternity together, or at least as long as they lived. Which might as well have been an eternity to Steve’s fifth grader mind.

To the group who watched the exchange, it was heart-wrenching. Even the teachers who had finally arrived for their missing students felt it. The separation felt unnatural.

Steve smiled at the group waiting for him. “Come on we’re late for class.”

The teachers started in on the speeches all their parents were called and they got in trouble, but everyone had been prepared for that. And everyone but Steve was so glum they went out for ice cream.

“How can you just walk away from him like that,” Sam asked Steve who was happily licking his ice cream cone.

Steve shrugged. “Soon I won’t be away from him at all.”

And that was that.

\----------------------------

That summer Steve got sick again. It got steadily worse as the summer progressed. He didn’t feel as guilty as he before. Peggy had Bruce, Tony, and Sam to keep her entertained but they ended up spending most of their days in the hospital room anyways.

Steve didn’t get better. He was dying the doctors said. Tony and Bruce overheard them say that. Their parents had decided to keep Steve’s condition under wraps from them. Mrs. Rogers didn’t appear phased though, just resigned. Tony told Steve what they had learned even though Steve was too weak to talk or open his eyes much.

“The doctors think you’re dying,” Tony announced bluntly, “I think they’re stupid.”

Steve knew that the doctors were right. He could feel it coming at him. It wasn’t the first time he was at death’s door. He wasn’t sure if it was the last time. He couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and everything hurt. He could hear everyone though clear as day. He heard his friends say goodbye for the night and leave.

Steve slept. He heard the last rights being said, had them memorized by now. He couldn’t remember how many times the Father has said them, but whenever he asked his mother always say too many. It hard to hold on and he could feel his body trying to reject his soul. Which was weird because usually, it was the other way around.

Then everything eased. “Sorry, Father. God can’t have him tonight.”

Steve felt calloused fingers digging into his hair and tried to open his eyes. “Hi, Stevie.”

The Father stopped the prayers as Steve’s eyes half opened. “Buck,” he croaked as his eyes slid shut again.

“Don’t worry I got yah. Now rest for me. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Steve felt himself relax under Bucky’s stronghold and he finally let himself slip into blackness.

When Steve finally woke up he was still weak, unable to move his body yet. Despite that, he turned his head searching for Bucky. Steve knew Bucky had been there when he had gone under and he wanted him. He wanted his mom to, but they had a system now for when these things happened. She would be here soon and he didn’t know where Bucky was.

Sitting in the chair beside him was one of the girls who had followed Bucky to the tree last Valentine’s Day. She was playing on a phone absently. Why was she here and where was Bucky?

Her eyes snapped over to his and she gasped. “Don’t panic,” she exclaimed, but Steve’s chest was already tight, Bucky was supposed to be here and he wasn’t.

“He’s just down the hall showering,” she announced, “you weren’t supposed to wake up for another day and we finally convinced him to take a shower. He hasn’t left your side unless it was to use the bathroom, and he was beginning to stink.”

Steve relaxed slightly. “Water,” she asked reaching to the bedside table and grabbing a glass.

She helped him drink and sit up. “So what’s your name,” Steve asked his voice barely rising above a whisper, “and how do you know Bucky?”

“Right you are passed out for introductions,” she clicked her tongue to the roof of her mouth, “and Bucky knows me not the other way around. I’m Shuri and I adopted Bucky two years ago when my family moved to America.”

“Where did you move from,” Steve asked.

“Wakanda,” Shuri answered rolling her eyes, “just a little hoshposh country in Africa that’s home to cultural exchange and innovation of technology and medicine. What do you have? Is it deadly?”

It was a question that people asked Steve a lot. He hated it. He gave Shuri the usual line he used when he wasn’t trying to be an ass. “Something rare with a long name that’s hard to pronounce.”

Shuri didn’t seem deterred and poked him, “my father studies rare diseases. That’s why we moved here. I would know it.”

No, she wouldn’t. The prognosis changed every few years and it just came down to whatever they were calling it that year.

There was the sharp sound of a click followed by other words Steve didn’t recognize. Shuri looked behind her as Bucky strolled in his hair wet and his eyes intense. “Come ask him yourself,” Shuri declared.

Bucky’s eyes met his and any tenseness or stress in Bucky’s body disappeared. Shuri slipped out of the chair. “I’ll go get our parents,” she declared as Bucky slipped into the empty spot grabbing Steve’s hand.

“Hey, Stevie,” Bucky greeted squeezing his hand, “you gave us a pretty good scare.”

Steve squeezed Bucky’s hand back as best as he could. “You’ll have to get used to it,” Steve croaked, “I’m the scariest thing since Halloween.”

Bucky laughed and part of Steve preened. “Our Ma’s think I’m nuts,” Bucky admitted, “I-I knew you were dying Stevie and I snuck in here. Interpreted the Father and everything.”

Steve laughed. “I was waiting for you,” he confessed, “I’m glad you’re here Buck.”

Bucky put his free hand up to Steve’s forehead. “Feeling tired,” he asked.

Steve shook his head no and Bucky shot him a look. “Yeah, but I wanna stay with you.”

“Don’t worry I’m not going anywhere,” Bucky lowered the bed so Steve was laying down again, “you can sleep.”

“Bucky I want my Mom,” Steve muttered as his eyes drifted shut.

“She’s coming,” Bucky promised.

Steve dipped into sleep again. When he woke up again someone was holding his hand, but it wasn’t Bucky

“Hi, Mom."

His eyes darted around the room where was Bucky? He felt his heart began to thunder. Then he found him. Bucky was laying on a cot nearby completely asleep. His heartbeat relaxed and Steve returned his attention to his mother.

She fussed with the machines around him. “That’s the strange part,” she declared, “you were getting really bad. Then he showed up and you started to recover.”

His mother had never been one to overuse her words. She said everything that needed to be said and anything else was absolute. She was a kind woman, but not one for useless pleasantries.

Steve shrugged as best as he could. “You feel him in your soul.” she guessed.

Steve nodded. She believed that there were people who knew each other on the molecular level. That they would know the other person as well as themselves and when it was time to be with and depart from one another. Steve supposed it might be something like soul mates, but he had never bought much into the idea. He still didn’t.

“You never told me,” she accused.

“It wasn’t time,” he answered.

She brushed back his hair. “Okay."

Bucky stumbled awake rubbing his eyes and looking up at Steve. He slipped off the cot and took the seat next to Steve’s mom.

“Hey, Stevie.”

Steve’s Mother groaned and said to him in Gaelic. “he’s going to spoil you. I’m going to go speak to his mother. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Bucky watched her go. “What language was that,” he asked when the door clicked shut.

“Gaelic,” Steve answered with a shrug, “my mom immigrated from Ireland when she was young. What were you speaking with Shuri?”

“IsiXhosa. That’s what they speak in Wakanda where Shuri is from. She already knew English, but it wasn’t fair she had to learn Russian and Sign language to keep up with us, so we learned IsiXhosa.”

“Why did she have to learn those?”

“Natasha the redhead, you already know about Sharon right? Well, she grew up in Russia till she was three when her mother married an American man and they moved here. A year later the man killed her mother and Natalia was taken to a girl’s home. She said she was young enough to forget her mother but old enough she couldn’t forget the language. And Clint’s deaf. It wasn’t until he got out of the circus that he learned to sign. They live in the same foster home now. Maria Hill is a good woman. Sharon’s got the idea in her mind to learn French and I swear Clint is going to strangle her.”

“Did you say circus,” Steve interrupted.

Bucky nodded. “People don’t really believe him when he says it, but Clint and his brother ran away and joined the circus. Eventually, his older brother left him with child protection services.”

“Oh, cool. What other languages do you know?”

“I can read in Hebrew my Mom is Jewish so she taught us how and I can hold a casual conversation in German. What about you besides English and Gaelic?”

“My neighbors all speak Spanish so I picked that up pretty easily and the lady that babysat me when I was a baby was from India so she spoke Hindi and I guess I learned that too. Tony’s trying to teach us all Italian because that’s what his nanny speaks.”

Steve and Bucky rolled their eyes at the same time and they both came to the sudden realization that they had each gained a list of languages they needed to learn if they were going to stand on equal ground with each other on this. They both groaned leaning towards each other and barking out twin laughs.

“God save us all,” Bruce muttered from the doorway.

Steve looked up to see him trying to leave and Tony pulling him back by his arm. “Bruce you’re an atheist stop being dramatic,” Tony demanded.

Steve smiled at them. “Hey,” he greeted.

Bruce sat down at the edge of the bed while Tony sat on Bucky’s lap and started to tease Steve. Bucky gave Tony an annoyed look and Steve gave him an apologetic smile. Sharon and Peggy came in a few minutes later. Peggy punched his shoulder lightly. “Stop scaring me,” she demanded.

“Hi Steve, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Steve nodded to Sharon and smiled. “Same to you."

Sam wandered in with Shuri. “Look who’s still in bed. You’re getting lazy Steve.”

Then Natasha and Clint arrived hand and hand both looking ticked off and disinterested. “Steve this is our Queen, Natasha. Sorry, Shar.”

Sharon waved Bucky off. “And our jester Clint.”

As soon as Clint had walked into the room Bucky had started to sign what he was saying. “Asshole,” Clint spat signing as well.

There was a bright purple hearing aid against his ear, and a knife twirling between his fingers. The room soon flowed into easy conversation. They all fit well together, and much to everyone around them dismay started to get in more trouble. Especially once Steve was released from the hospital.

Steve was never alone. He was hardly ever separated from Bucky. The longest they were apart was when they left to go to bed at night if they separated then. It turned out they only lived a block from each other and both their mothers worked at the same hospital as nurses. How they hadn’t run across each other earlier was a mystery. The more amazing thing was that if Steve and Bucky did separate they still weren’t alone. They had eight friends and someone was always with them. They teased Steve and called it Steve’s watch. According to Shuri, one could not leave the Smol alone to get killed in a fight.

The school year came and the group began to wreak havoc on the school. Everyone had already known about their Valentine tradition, but this was different and everyone knew it. At first, some of the guys who had problems with Steve tried to take it out on Bucky or the guys who had a problem with Bucky take it on Steve before they realized that was a horrible idea. Neither of them minded their own honor much, but they were relentless about each other.

Steve started to get catcalls from the older students, encouraged by Clint and Tony who were a horrible delightful mixture. They both liked trouble and hated authority. The only thing that saved them was Bruce’s ability to talk them down and Natasha’s ability to hide their tracks when Bruce failed.

Peggy, Sharon, Sam, and Shuri got into the kinds of trouble that teachers couldn’t yell at them for. Steve suspected that Natasha if her loyalty wasn’t to Clint, would fall into the latter group instead of the former.

On Valentine’s day that year, there was a different kind of excitement. There was no rush to get to each other. The desperation was gone, but Steve’s hand’s shook all day, even when Bucky held it. They separated from their friends after school and they walked down to their tree. Standing under the tree Bucky pulled Steve into his arms. “Happy Valentine's day Stevie.”

“Happy Valentine’s day Buck,” Steve answered burying his cold cheeks into Bucky’s chest.

Bucky chuckled and they stayed like that for a moment before Bucky pulled back and handed Steve the red heart. Steve’s hands finally stopped shaking and Bucky threw him over his shoulder. “Let’s get home,” Bucky declared, “before your punky attitude freezes like your body is bound to.”

Steve thunked Bucky’s back in protest, but let himself hang limply laughing. “You’re such a jerk. Why do I let you be my valentine again?”

“Who else would you want ya’ punk?”

They giggled and spent the rest of the day in Bucky’s room watching romantic valentine’s day movies making fun of them.

\----------------------------

The next three years passed similarly. Steve grasped their red heart in his hand standing under their tree as he waited for Bucky. “I can’t believe you still aren’t dating,” Tony complained, “what’s the point of waiting? You’ve been with each other since middle school.”

Sam swatted at Tony’s head and Steve sneezed. “He would have come to you Steve,” Peggy snapped.

Steve was sick again. It was only a cold, but he hadn’t been to school that day, but Steve wasn’t going to miss their tradition if he could help it. Peggy, Sam, Tony, and Bruce had known where Steve was going to be and had taken turns sneaking out of the high school to watch him, and hopefully convince him to stay home. When Tony had found Steve gone from his bed, he had called the other three and they had gone running to the tree with blankets, thermals, winter clothes, and angry glares.

Steve ignored them all and bit his lip. Bucky came trotting down the dirt path a scowl on his face. “Jesus you Punk! You’re going to catch your death out here! What the hell am I supposed to do if you get sick again? You’re Ma is going to kill me.”

Bucky was yelling loud enough that Steve could hear him clearly from yards away. Shuri, Sharon, Natasha, and Clint were chasing after him. Bucky looked as pissed as hell. The angriest any of them had ever seen him. Steve stood there cocky and smiling. Clint and Natasha tried to grab his arms and hold him back, but Bucky shook them off like they weighed nothing. Tony jumped out of his way as Bucky stormed past.

Everyone held their breath to see what the fuming boy would do. Instead of something hard and biting like the energy he emanated Bucky came to a halt in front of Steve, gently cupped his face, and brought their lips together.

Steve’s first kiss was perfect. It was soft and firm, loving and desperate. It made Steve melt. Bucky pulled back enough that he could catch Steve. Steve handed him the red heart. “Happy Valentine's day Jerk,” Steve muttered.

“Happy Valentine’s day Punk.”

Buck pulled Steve into his arms bridal style and Bruce rushed forward offering Bucky the blankets Steve had refused. Bucky wrapped Steve in them the best he could before Steve caught his death in the cold.

\----------------------------

After that first kiss, they couldn’t stop. Everyone wished they would. The Valentine’s day after Steve turned sixteen they lost their virginity to each other. Their mothers had a very long talk about sexual safety with them.

When Bucky graduated high school Steve moped. Bucky had left in the fall to go to a college out of state. They had talked about it for a long time and determined that it was the best place for Bucky to go. Bucky was going to study foreign languages and become a translator. It made Steve proud but he missed him.

Tony kicked Steve’s leg during lunch that October and glowered. Steve chuckled. “Sorry Jerk, Tony is being an ass I have to go.”

Whenever Bucky got a spare moment he called Steve and Steve always picked up, even in the middle of class. The teachers had already given up on him. Tony, on the other hand, could only handle so much.

“You sure you want to get off, Punk,” Bucky asked, “you know my kink is annoying Tony.”

Steve laughed. “We have a project to work on and Tony wants me to do all the work.”

Tony pinched him and Steve swatted him away. “Love you, Stevie.”

“I love you to Buck. Talk to you later?”

“Yeah, call me when you get home."

Steve hung up and turned his attention back to the work. Tony wasn’t paying attention to the work though. He was fluttering nervously and Steve ignored that waited until Tony was ready to talk. Asking Tony what was going on would just scare him off from saying anything.

Finally Tony slumped in his chair. “Pepper is going to be here tomorrow,” he announced.

“As in Pepper Potts,” Steve asked setting down his pencil and giving Tony his full attention, “as in the powerhouse, daughter of the business tycoon CEO, who also happened to sweep you off your feet two summers ago in Italy?”

Now that Steve was older he understood better why Tony had chosen such a loser to hang out with. Steve and Peggy had treated him like he had treated everyone else. Despite the fact that he was rich and had famous parents, and was kind of a kid genius. It made a lot of people treat him differently and it kind of messed Tony up a lot.

Miss. Pepper Potts had knocked Tony off his ass and as Tony claimed was one of the three people he let boss him around, and they were all redheads. Steve didn’t really think Pepper Potts was a redhead, not like Natasha and Peggy were, from the photos Tony showed him, she was more of a strawberry blond, but that was semantics.

Tony glared at Steve. “Just don’t make me look stupid this week okay?”

Which was Tony speak for please support me. Everyone knew that Tony would throw himself at her feet given the chance. Tony had called Steve and Bucky the day he met her and declared, “I feel like you assholes." Then hung up.

Steve nodded. “I’ll keep the embarrassing stories to the second day,” he joked.

The next day they meet Pepper at their favorite cafe. Natasha and Clint had decided to make the hour drive from their college to come to meet her. Shuri, Sharon, and Bucky were too far away, but they all demanded pictures.

Tony was a nervous mess. Pepper sat at in the booth watching him in amusement. She was a lovely woman. Peggy and Natasha immediately latched on to her which made Tony groan and the three woman to look at him lovingly.

Pepper and Steve got some time alone when Sam dragged the group off to run ahead and set up one the volleyball courts nearby.

“Tony says you’re sick,” she noted looking him up and down as they strolled casually along.

“Tony says a lot of things.”

Steve kept his irritation down. He had gotten better since he was a child, he hadn’t been near deaths doors in years. His Ma said with Bucky’s soul being so near it made Steve’s stronger, and it worried her that they were so far apart now.

“He also says you get into too many fights.”

Steve locked his jaw. “Apparently you lose them too.”

“Sometimes it’s not about winning.”

“You’re right, but sometimes it’s also about the people we want to protect. Give me your phone.”

Steve handed it obediently over as he let her words sink in. It was a natural reflex for him to listen when Peggy and Natasha wanted something and he supposed Tony was right, Pepper was just like them. “I’m staying in this area until Spring,” Pepper declared, “and my bodyguard, Happy, gives me boxing lessons twice a week and you’ll be coming with me from now on.”

“Okay,” Steve agreed.

Steve knew he was many things, but he often hoped stupid wasn’t one of them. Under Pepper and Happy’s careful watch the impossible happened, Steve started to build muscle mass, and he suddenly had a growth spurt.

At the beginning of November, Bucky got the opportunity to go overseas and study in one of the most prestigious academies for translating and he went. They practically lost contact with him, but Steve didn’t seem upset or freaked out so no one worried too much.

As Valentine’s day approached everyone expected Steve to get restless and edgy, but he didn’t. It seemed like he was getting calmer.

On Valentine’s day, Steve got an armful of blankets and went over to their tree with a picket basket and thermals. Bucky arrived at noon running at the tree as fast as he could go. When he saw Steve he stopped dead. “I thought you were smaller,” he exclaimed.

Steve grabbed him pulling him into a hug, now, just as tall as Bucky was. “Hey, Jerk.”

Bucky squeezed him laughing. “Happy Valentine’s day Punk.”

They kissed and spent the rest of the afternoon under their tree catching up and relearning how their bodies fit together. Steve gave Bucky their heart.

\----------------------------

College was an amazing time. Steve followed Bucky to his college to study art and they rented an apartment together. Steve met a football player called Thor. No one knew if that was his real name or if he just introduced himself that way. He became their roommate as well after removing himself from the frat house because of inappropriate behavior on his Frat Brother’s part.

When Bucky and Steve both graduated so did Thor, and surprisingly enough the man followed them home. He made a great addition to their group who all got apartments in the same complex. It was chaos.

Clint’s college girlfriend Laura moved in as well and they got engaged a year later. Pepper and Tony were engaged the year after that. Peggy married a sweet man who worked for the government. No one moved out of the apartments though. They couldn’t bring themselves to do it.

By the time Steve was twenty-six he had three people knocking on his door a day demanding to know when he was going to get engaged to Bucky.

They had never been in any hurry, and with Bucky’s job, there had never been a good time. So everyone got married before Steve and Bucky did. Thor who and continued with his football career married an astrologist named Jane. Their friend Valki, nicknamed Val, an ex-marine, was swept off her feet by Shuri.

Natasha and Bruce were still single, but they had moved in together as friends and cuddle buddies. Tony introduced Sharon to one of his college friends Rhodey and they hit it off better than anyone ever expected. Then there was Sam who married a cute sandy harried medical student named Rylie.

The apartments were full of kids, and laughter. Finally, Bucky’s job settled down and Steve had everything the way he wanted it.

Valentine’s day came and Steve decorated their tree in candles and lights with pictures he had taken and painted spread around them. He purposed, there red light shining off Bucky’s face but failing to mask the tears he shed.

When they arrived at the tree Bucky gasped. His eyes trying to see everything at once. Steve lead him through the artwork letting Bucky absorb it. Each one was a Valentine's day they had spent together.

The last one the closest to the tree showed Steve on one knee glancing up at Bucky. Bucky’s jerked when he saw it and Steve got down and pulled out their heart with a soft smirk. “Be my Valentine?"

Hesitantly Bucky took the heart and Steve saw the moment when the ring slid into Bucky’s hand. Saw the shock and warmth. “Well it’s not like you’re able to get rid of me,” Bucky choked.

“Marry me,” Steve requested standing and taking the ring back.

Bucky nodded his mouth slightly agape and holding back tears. “Please,” Bucky muttered holding out his hand, “please, Stevie.”

Steve slipped the ring on and pulled Bucky into a hug while Bucky cried with joy. Steve cried as well, but Bucky was the one who was shaking. “I didn’t know if you would live to make it here,” Buck admitted suddenly.

“I haven’t been sick in years,” Steve reminded him brushing away the tears.

“I know,” Bucky replied, “but that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t scare me. I wouldn’t make it if you weren’t with me ya Punk.”

Steve kissed him. “Jerk.”

They stood in the snow under the tree feeling a million emotions at once. “I wish we had chosen a warmer holiday” Bucky complained.

Steve laughed. “Happy Valentine’s day Buck.”

“Happy Valentine’s day Stevie.”

\----------------------------

Naturally, they got married under their tree on Valentine’s day. Thankfully by some miracle it had been a warm February and had rained the days before the wedding leaving the temperature a brisk forty and the ground muddy, but no one cared.

The ceremony and the reception were both beautiful, complete with Bucky passing Steve their heart back. There hadn’t been a dry eye in attendance.

\----------------------------

Steve and Bucky never had kids of their own. There was a never-ending hoard that needed to be corralled and raised between their family anyways.

Peggy and her husband had three kids, all of which looked like Peggy and had their father’s humility. Clint and Laura had five. Laura gave birth to Cooper, Lilia, and Nathaniel, and they adopted Wanda and Pietro. Sharon and Rhodey adopted as well, but they stuck with just two kids.

Natasha and Bruce despite never marrying or even being in a romantic relationship fostered kids together and adopted more than a handful.

Sam, Rylie, Shuri, and Val raised a family together deciding it was easier than getting a surrogate and unknown sperm donors. Thor and Jane got divorced before they could have any kids. They were better friends than lovers, and they remained friends and roommates, even when Jane married her friend Darcy. The three of them adopted Thor’s sister’s kids after she died in a car accident. Which was a surprise because Thor hadn’t even known he had a sister.

Pepper and Tony had three kids. Harley was their biological child, but after him, they discovered that pregnancy was dangerous for Pepper so they decided to adopt. Peter came to them after his parents died in a plane crash and his aunt decided to put him up for adoption. Vision was a homeless teen that Tony corralled into their home.

So Steve and Bucky never felt the need to have kids. They were satisfied helping their family raise their kids. Then eventually the grandkids.

Then one Valentine’s day as they were walking towards their tree they noticed a group of teenagers surrounding it and making out. Steve blushed and Bucky wolf-whistled at them. It got some of their attention.

“Are you coming for the magic?” A boy asked.

“Magic?”

All off the teenagers started to crowd around them excitement coursing through their faces “Yeah,” one of the girls answered, “you’re like as old as the Valentine Tree is, you’ve got to know the story right?"

“Valentine Tree?”

“The tree,” another boy waved back to the tree behind them, “like sixty years ago these two lovers met for the first time just after this tree was planted on Valentine’s day. They exchanged a Valentine Times and promised to meet back the next year and they did. Year after year they came back and their love grew and grew and grew, for every year they came and swapped Valentine’s.”

One of the other boys broke in excitedly. “My Grandma said she saw it happened and that they could always feel each other no matter where they were, and they knew what the other one needed. And sometimes one pulled the other away from the brink of death. If you wanted your relationship to be like that you're supposed to come here and exchange Valentine’s and every year you do it the stronger the relationship will be.”

“You look like your kind of old to get started, but I guess it’s never too late for love.”

Bucky chuckled and tugged Steve’s hand so they were walking towards the tree. The teenagers started to depart and Steve put his head on Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky's shoulder-length silver hair brushing against Steve's nose.

“Sixty-six isn’t that old,” Bucky complained.

“Nah you’re an old man. Look at me spry and young at sixty-five.”

“Punk.”

“Jerk.”

“What do you think Stevie? Is the tree really magic?”

Steve laughed. “I think we need to call the kids and see who decided to spread rumors when we get home. Peggy is going to laugh her ass off.”

“I bet it’s was Peter,” Bucky jested.

Steve hummed. “I won’t go against that.”

They smiled at each other breathing in the winter air their hands clutched on a worn and weathered red paper heart. “Be my Valentine?” Bucky asked.

“Always.”

They leaned forward enraptured in each other just like they had been the first time they had kissed. It was passion and sweetness. It was a long and happy life. It was them. Their love. Their heart. Their tree. Their sweet Valentine’s.


End file.
